2014 - The Hague

The third Nuclear Security Summit was hosted by the Netherlands in The Hague from March 24-25, 2014. Fifty-three countries and four international organizations were invited. During the Summit, 58 world leaders made concrete agreements to prevent terrorists from getting their hands on nuclear material that could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

The Hague Summit built on the impressive track record of the previous two Summits, and focused on the key issues of strengthening the global nuclear security architecture, elevating the importance of cooperation between governments and nuclear industry, and maintaining the high level of achievement on Summit commitments. At the Summit, the international community reviewed the progress made since the 2012 Summit, focused attention on objectives enunciated in the Seoul Communiqué and Washington Work Plan that have not yet been met, and developed a clear way ahead to translate them from ambition to action.

As was the case with the two prior Summits, extensive preparations and consultations among senior-level experts from each participating country were held in the run-up to the 2014 Summit. These experts, known as sherpas and sous-sherpas, met to develop consensus on the priorities and specific actions that ultimately formed the basis of the commitments made by world leaders in the Summit Communiqué. For the 2014 Summit, this process began in November 2012, with the first preparatory meeting held in Istanbul, and ended with a final meeting in The Hague just prior to the Summit in March.

Three official side events also took place on the margins of The Hague Summit in an effort to involve key actors from the nuclear industry, the scientific community, nongovernmental organizations, and the general public. The first, titled @tomic 2014, was a table-top exercise on decision-making in the event of an incident of nuclear terrorism. This exercise took place in Maastricht from February 18-20, 2014. Additional side events included the Nuclear Knowledge Summit in The Hague on March 21-22 and the Nuclear Industry Summit in Amsterdam on March 23-24.